So, I was lined up in my position at an airport gate the other day and one of the people waiting in front of me used the term “airport vultures,” meaning people waiting to board who crowd the gate regardless of where their seats are or when their boarding position ...
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A lot of the work that’s done with the public is just generally difficult. Jobs with the greatest burnout have always seemed to be those in the service industry – servers, retail employees, catering to everyday people. So it stands to reason that successfully facilitating people in meetings that deal ...
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I’ve been fortunate enough to have been facilitating a community group of concerned people in a small town around a large and highly controversial proposed mining project for more than 10 years. It may actually take another 10 years for it to come to fruition – if it ever does ...
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I encounter teenage girls fairly frequently (that sounds a lot creepier than I intended) and I have found – not universally, but quite often – that they have a rather unusual speaking affectation. I’ve often found this particular sound coming out of them a little weird, but sort of dismissed ...
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In previous issues, we’ve talked about the power and benefits of making informal conversation – small talk, chitchat – with people and various stakeholders prior to the meaty conversations that you’re likely going to have. Small talk breaks the ice a little, greases the wheels, starts to build a tiny ...
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So, there are better, more effective ways of crafting emails, but consider the message that the medium itself sends. If you have the option of actually talking with someone face to face, even when it’s less convenient for you, get up, move, walk, drive if you have to, but go ...
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Email is the most used communication device in the work world, right? If you’re anything like me, you use email far more than the phone; text might be catching up and video conferencing is now in competition. It’s easy to just take emails for granted, but it’s not smart to ...
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This is one of those stories that I debated about even using in this newsletter, I’m trying to avoid going too deeply into the polarized political pit. But, fact is, it’s become impossible to avoid in this work that you and I have chosen to do. Working successfully with the ...
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It was interesting to find the corporate world acknowledging the value of engagement but using different terminology, in this case, influence … mutual influence. In other words, operating differently from a position of unilateral hierarchy, coercion or authority, which is the way that we have come to expect most companies ...
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Blokes and birds who deal with anyone who’s lost the plot would be bloody well served by considering the following before starting their next chinwag....
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